John and I met at an NTEN conference in Atlanta about four years ago, and he’s also a very big reason why I’m doing what I’m doing today. Listen for more on why.

Following are some of the topics we discussed:

• The advantage of non-profits: Giving people meaning
• Differences and similarities in approach to and struggles with Facebook between non-profits and for-profits
• Facebook Insights and the stats that matter (Demographics, Talking About This, Frequency)
• Promoted Posts

Here are links to a few of the things mentioned on this show:

• Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
• Facebook Insights Helper
• A video on overcoming adversity
• Social Media Fundraising Club
• Facebook Marketing for Dummies

You can find John in the following places:

• JohnHaydon.com
• @JohnHaydon on Twitter
• Facebook.com/inboundzombie

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

How to Get People Talking About Your Brand with John Haydon [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

As always, I’ll be answering one of your questions every week. Great question this week from PonyBoy Press:

why aren’t tabs supported in mobile and why isn’t that clear when we’re being forced to use pay for apps(and tabs) for contests

This is something misunderstood by many — if not most — Facebook marketers. They create a Facebook tab and link to it, thinking everyone can see it.

Not true! If you use the direct link, it will not work on a mobile device. So, are you wasting money on tabs?

Nope. I use ShortStack (here’s a review I wrote). They provide a smart URL so that when you share it, anyone can see it.

I’m sure other services offer smart links as well, but ShortStack is the only one I use and can recommend.

Take a look! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Problem: Facebook Tabs Aren’t Mobile Friendly [VLOG] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I can’t count the number of tweets or blog posts of Social Media marketers whining about their Facebook reach being too low. It’s kind of annoying, and I know it annoys Jon a lot. Well, you won’t have to annoy Jon anymore since your reach is back up!

And you know what? Your “real” reach was not down; it was just displayed incorrectly due to a bug on Facebook…

When Did It All Start?

It started at the end of August 2012. Suddenly, Facebook page owners saw their page and post reach going down like crazy. Some of them even reported an 80% drop. That was big! Jon was one of the first bloggers to report this anomaly in September.

Were they right to complain at that time? Absolutely! That drop was for real.

On the following screenshot from our Facebook page Barometer, you can see the evidence of the drop. And that graph is the result of the average viral reach for more than 3,500 pages of all sizes.

Pretty significant drop of viral reach at the end of August and beginning of September.

Weirdly enough, viral reach was the only metric affected; organic did not really change during that period. But as viral is a big part of total reach, total reach went down, too, as a result (simple math).

The Reaction

That whole reach issue started to fill the Social Media blogosphere. According to some, it was a plot from Facebook to force page owners to pay to reach their fans. Jon wrote a detailed post about this issue, a good read I recommend you check out!

Even TechCrunch was confused, posting conflicting articles confirming and denying the rumor within the same day! It’s been pretty hard for the rest of us to know where the real truth was.

The Correction

The truth was that actual reach was not down, but the way it was displayed was buggy!

On February 22nd, Facebook announced a bug that had been affecting reach reporting in its page insights. Actual reach was not affected, but stats were inaccurately reporting lower numbers.

In its announcement, Facebook has been rather vague on the actual effect of the bug they’d just killed. According to Facebook, page owners should have expected:

• Total reach to stay the same or increase for most Pages
• An increase in paid reach if you ran News Feed ads
• An increase or decrease in organic reach, depending on many factors such as the composition of your fan base, when and how often you post and your spending patterns
• A change in metrics computed from reach and impressions, such as engagement rate and virality

The Stats Since

So, thanks to that (not so) clear explanation from Facebook, the real question is whether or not your Facebook reach is really up.

The short answer is yes. But the reach metric that has increased is not the organic one, but viral.

Based on a sample of more than 3,000 pages of all sizes since February 21, organic reach has remained pretty steady while viral reach has increased by 200% on average. A pretty significant change.

Since February 21, based on a sample of more than 3,500 pages, the monthly viral reach statistics have gone from the equivalent of 100% of fan bases to almost 300%. Organic has remained pretty steady.

So, should you expect your organic reach to be the same, and your viral reach to have gone through the roof? Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

The bug was only affecting certain types of impressions (for example, paid impressions in news feed or impressions of shared content); the effect of that bug fix on your page statistics will vary greatly depending on your content strategy, posting frequency and type of engagement you were getting.

Based on the data we have for our biggest (and most active) clients, the impact on viral reach has gone anywhere from 100% to 1,000%! That means from twice to ten times as much viral reach. Viral being a big part of the total reach equation, total reach has been affected pro rata as a consequence.

In a nutshell, the magnitude of the increase in reach will vary greatly from one page to another.

But the good news is that the drop that everyone noticed at the beginning of September 2012 has been “erased” by the bug fix. Reach levels are now back to what they used to be in August 2012 and before.

Find Your Reach

Want to find out how your page’s reach has been affected by this bug fix? Try our free Facebook Page Barometer.

Let us know in the comments if you notice an increase in your organic or viral reach since the end of February. I’d love to know!

About Emeric Ernoult
Emeric is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for Facebook marketing. He is the founder of AgoraPulse, the first Facebook marketing and CRM software specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses. He has also launched the Facebook Page Performance Barometer, a free tool helping Facebook Page manager to better understand their performance on Facebook.

History of Facebook Reach: Where it Was, Where it Went, Where it is Now is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Many are reporting that when creating a new Facebook Offer, the option to “Promote later using another Facebook Ad tool” has been removed.

Here is how the fourth step of the Offer create flow appeared, complete with that option…

And now here’s how an Offer looks today, without that option…

Why This is a Problem

This is a problem because the cost of Facebook Offers has skyrocketed of late. Now when I create a Facebook Offer, my minimum cost is $80 with a max of $4,800.

The solution was previously to “promote later” and then create an ad within Power Editor. The reason you’d do this was to have full control over the cost, bid, targeting and placement to make it as efficient as possible.

Solution?

Yesterday, I created this test Offer…

I immediately paused the campaign. What’s interesting is that although you’re not supposed to reach anyone without promoting, I have reached 406 people organically and 21 people virally without spending a dime on promotion.

You probably want to reach more than 427 people with your Facebook Offer, but this is a good sign. I immediately went into Power Editor and created an ad promoting that piece of content. That ad was approved.

This ad is running for now. I’ll update here if anything changes.

Watch this video regarding how to create this ad in Power Editor. Of course, ignore the part about “Promote Later.”

In the end, this is a workaround. And as is the case with most workarounds on Facebook, even if it does work now it probably won’t work for long.

How About You?

Have you tried this? Let me know your results below!

Facebook Offers Option to Promote Later Removed [Do This] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

But there are far too many marketers who are polluting Facebook with baseless claims and ineffective strategies, resulting in many others following their collective lead.

So, here’s my attempt to do my part. Please stop doing these things.

1. Stop complaining to Fans about not being able to reach them

I thought we were done with this madness, but I still see it. Too many Facebook marketers have an unrealistic expectation regarding the number of Fans who will see a given post.

“Every Fan should see my posts! If they liked my Page, they want to see it!”

Meh. Come on.

If you have a basic understanding of math and online user behavior, you realize that most of your Fans won’t see your content whether EdgeRank existed or not.

You realize that only half of all users visit Facebook every day.

You realize that of those who do visit, the average user will only visit for 30-60 minutes.

You realize that your content is competing with mounds of posts from friends, family members, apps and other Pages.

You realize that on Twitter, even fewer of your followers will see a given post. A fraction, in fact.

You realize that a small percentage of your Fans actually care whether they see most or even some of your posts.

Yes, EdgeRank exists. Yes, Facebook may decide not to show your content to specific Fans who have shown no interest in your boring content. And yes, you may need to pay to reach some of your Fans.

But Facebook also helps surface your content to Fans who may have otherwise missed it. You blame EdgeRank, but in the end good content rises to the top and it will help you.

Still, you find the need to write posts that complain to your Fans about how you aren’t reaching them.

You know what? They don’t care.

The vast majority of your Fans who liked your Page don’t care if they see 100% of your posts. They won’t miss the ones they don’t see. By sharing a whiny post about how you can’t reach them, you may just drive the ones who do care away.

Don’t be fooled by the few Fans who sympathize with your plight. By complaining about this, you look unprofessional and you’re doing your brand and your message more harm than good.

2. Stop worrying about Reach

Oh, no! Your Reach is down!

Whoa, you should never share links because they reach fewer people!

Stop. Just stop. Please.

Reach isn’t completely worthless. But it’s close. It should be considered. But it doesn’t tell the story of whether your content succeeded or failed.

Reach is good as a reference point. But you should worry most about specific types of engagement that lead to a desired action.

Start focusing more on link clicks. And shares. And video plays. And whatever action it is that is central to your success.

Reach is far too flawed to trust. It’s far too inexact to be the focus of your campaign. And you’re far too sophisticated to lose sleep over it.

3. Stop creating fluff to drive fluff engagement

Woo hoo! Half of my Fans clicked Like on my cat meme! I’m awesome!

What’s that? How many link clicks did it drive? How many sales did it generate? Ummmmmmm…..

The problem with EdgeRank is that far too many marketers now try to manipulate it. They know that more engagement means more Reach. So they post a bunch of fluff that generates a ton of engagement.

A ton of meaningless engagement.

Look, having some fun with your Page is fine. Posting an occasional fluff piece of content that generates easy reactions can actually help you.

But stop making these types of posts central to your strategy.

You may generate plenty of engagement from memes, cat photos and other similar posts. But if you rely too heavily on them, you’ll start attracting the type of Fan who cares only about that stuff.

When you do that, you lose the Fan who actually cared about your product, service or niche. Some liked your Page because of the value you could add to that conversation.

And it’s this type of Fan — not the meme lover — who is most likely to result in business.

4. Stop worrying about number of Likes

Oh, no, my number of Likes dropped overnight!

Hey, look, I got 5,000 new Likes! None of them speak my native language, but… LOOK! More Likes!

This shouldn’t shock you, but it’s quality over quantity. The number is cosmetic. It means a little. But it doesn’t mean a lot.

If your ultimate goal is to drive meaningful traffic, interactions and business, you want quality Fans who actually care about your product or service.

If your Facebook Page isn’t driving meaningful traffic, interactions or business, it could be because you focused too heavily on quantity and not enough on quality.

Should you celebrate reaching new milestones? Sure. Should a number of Likes determine your success or failure? Absolutely not.

In the end, it’s just a number. You can’t trade in Likes for cash. Your measure of success will ultimately be determined by the number of desired actions your Fans and their connections perform, whether from a small or large pool.

5. Stop creating Promoted Posts

Facebook advertising is powerful. But if you are clicking that “Promote” or “Boost” button next to your post, you are not experiencing the true benefits of what Facebook has to offer.

I continuously hear complaints about how advertisers can no longer target Fans only with their Promoted Posts.

My response? Stop doing it.

Promoted Posts are intended for the beginner advertiser. It’s meant as an easy way to entice you to spend some money. But it is cookie cutter and only scratches the surface of what you can do.

You should still promote your content, but in much different ways. If you’ve read my content before, you’re likely tired of reading this: Use Power Editor.

6. Stop whining about changes

UGH! Facebook is rolling out a new News Feed! I want the old News Feed back!

Still more Facebook ad options? I can’t keep up! STOP WITH THE CHANGES!

I hate to sound harsh, but quit your whining.

I know you prefer the old News Feed. I know you prefer the old, old News Feed. I know you prefer the old, old, old News Feed. But it’s not coming back.

The old Facebook was primitive when it came to marketing. The targeting options were few. The advertising options were limited.

I won’t say that every change is good. But if you understand Facebook, you know that what is available to marketers today is far more powerful than what we had even a year ago.

Is it difficult to keep up? Maybe. Sure, it is. But it’s in the name of progress. These changes will ultimately help you.

Embrace them!

Start Doing These Things…

Now that you’ve stopped doing things, it’s time to focus on the right things.

Start experimenting.

Start embracing change.

Start researching the power of Facebook advertising.

Start focusing on the metrics that matter.

What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

6 Things Facebook Marketers Need to Stop Doing is a post from: JonLoomer.com

On this episode, sponsored by TabSite, we talked about the following topics:

• The quick rise of RazorSocial from obscurity to Social Media Examiner Top 10 in six months
• The blogging process and the importance of finding a niche
• Networking, conferences, book writing, guest blogging and public speaking
• Ian’s favorite tools

Throughout this episode, Ian mentioned several tools. Here they are:

This week’s episode is sponsored by TabSite!

• DivvyHQ
• SEOMoz
• Yoast SEO WordPress plugin
• PostPlanner
• Mention
• AgoraPulse
• Lead-Converter

Make sure you follow Ian’s work on RazorSocial.com and on Twitter at @IanCleary. Cheers!

P.S. A final chance for an awesome offer: Get 33% off of the annual or monthly plans of TabSite for a single Facebook Page by going to TabSite.com/podcast and using the promo code podcast. TabSite is a great tool for contest and deal apps. Check them out!

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

The Best Social Media Marketing Tools with Ian Cleary [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Lots of business owners get really excited during fall and winter, in anticipation of the holidays. People are in the mood to shop, so the the holiday season is a great time to host a contest, acquire new customers and drive lots of sales. But did you know that your business can take advantage of the summer season in the same way?

In February I shared with you five just-for-fun apps that your fans will love. Following the theme of my last guest post, today I’m going to cover five more app ideas that are perfect for the Summer season.

1. Holiday app

There is something to celebrate once a month during summer: Father’s Day, Graduations, Fourth of July and Labor Day. Plus, there are about a hundred kooky “national holidays” like Sidewalk Egg Frying Day and Embrace Your Geekness Day. I promise I’m not making those last two up! Just Google “July 2013 holidays” and you’ll find a long list of silly celebrations.

The point is, you don’t have to wait for a major holiday or season to come around for your business to join in on the holiday fun. In fact, there are a couple of benefits to celebrating lesser known holidays. During the traditional holiday season, between October and December, your business is like that unknown singer who is trying out for American Idol. It’s difficult to stand out because thousands of other hopefuls are standing in line to try out, too. But if you decide to celebrate “Sidewalk Egg Frying Day,” you stand out in the crowd.

The holiday app concept also works well when businesses choose to celebrate holidays that align well with their industry or brand. Take, for example, the California Avocado Commission For Cinco de Mayo. The California Avocado Commission had a contest app that featured three recipes that used California avocados.

And for National Moscato Day on May 9th, Sutter Home Wine had a save-the-date app where users could spread the word about the day with their friends.

Both of these apps, by the way, were designed using ShortStack by the awesome agency Red Door Interactive. Shout out out to them for their great work and for letting me feature their apps!

2. Summer promo app

If you’re a Groupon or Living Social member you probably notice that around this time of year you start getting loads of deals from tanning salons, swimwear brands, gyms and other exercise facilities. Why? People are getting motivated to get in shape so they look their best for upcoming vacations, reunions, weddings, etcetera.

Now is a great time for businesses to get creative with Summer-themed promotions. If you’re a company that doesn’t want to pay to share your offer, a Facebook app that hosts your deal is a great alternative. Take a note from the upscale San Diego yoga studio Yoga Six. Their app, also designed by the folks over at Red Door Interactive, targets new students who can purchase their special one-month unlimited yoga pass for $79 directly from the app.

3. Facebook exclusive app

According to the ladies I work with at ShortStack, Kate Spade New York does social really, really well — and I agree. Even though I don’t follow Kate Spade New York on Facebook (no offense, Kate, I’m just not a handbag kind of guy!), there’s a reason I often reference their Page: they’re total pros at keeping their fans happy and engaged. Businesses, even outside the fashion and retail industry, can take a lesson from what they do.

Instead of running promotions just around the times of hyped up holidays, Kate Spade NY features a promotion or an exclusive item on their Facebook Page every single month. Only fans of Kate Spade are allowed access to the exclusive. This keeps their Page relevant, their fans interested and it gives them the opportunity to tailor their promotions and exclusives to the season. For example, Kate Spade New York’s May Facebook Exclusive is very Summer appropriate, a wicker print tote bag with a pops of pink trim. At the bottom of the app users can click the “Shop Now” button to purchase the tote!

4. Newsletter subscriber app

You know those people who get all their Christmas shopping done the day after Thanksgiving? Creating a newsletter subscriber app this Summer will put you on par with those folks! Launching your app now gives your business enough time to build a solid list of new email subscribers. Come October, November and December you’ll be prepared to tackle the holiday season with full force.

One effective way to grow your email list quickly this Summer is to encourage your current Facebook followers to become email subscribers. To do this, design a Facebook app (similar to Marie Forleo’s newsletter app below) that has a simple custom form, an effective headline and an easy-to-read list of what your business is offering in response to an email opt-in.

5. Customer appreciation app

For all those awesome people saying nice things about your business on the web, use a customer appreciation app to say “thanks!” Try using this kind of app is a more unconventional way.

For example, instead of creating this app to be featured on your business’s Timeline, publish the app, but only allow Page admins to view it. Then, when someone on Facebook– or any other social network– says something nice about your business and you see it, you can send that person a link to your “secret” customer appreciation app. Only the users that have been shared a link to your app will have access to it.

You can design your customer appreciation app to reveal a special promotion code or, like in the example we did below, use a custom form for users to fill out to receive an exclusive gift.

Speaking of customer appreciation, what about some reader appreciation? If you made it this far into the post, I want to give you a chance to win a ShortStack shirt!

In the comments below, share if you plan on launching — or already have launched — a new app this Summer. In your comment, also leave your email address or Twitter handle. I’ll contact the comment winners on Monday, May 20th via email or a Twitter direct message.

Note: If you’re reading this post after May 20th, the contest will be closed.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your comments below!

About Jim Belosic
Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service custom app design tool used to create apps for Facebook Pages, websites and mobile web browsing. ShortStack provides the tools for small businesses, graphic designers, agencies and corporations to create apps with contests and forms, fan gates, product lines and more.

5 Facebook Page App Ideas Just in Time for Summer is a post from: JonLoomer.com

But here’s the thing: Facebook offers tools that allow you to reach a relevant audience and realize profits without having a Facebook Page at all.

This wasn’t possible until Facebook started rolling out some incredibly powerful tools beginning about a year ago. And while I still recommend you have a Facebook Page to help nurture long-term customer relationships, here are four ways you can profit from Facebook without a Page at all.

1. FBX (Facebook Retargeting)

FBX is a way for brands to serve ads on Facebook to users who have visited their website or a specific page of their website. It is in no way connected to a Facebook Page. And beginning recently, these ads can now be served into News Feeds.

Let’s say that a user visited a product page that you control but did not complete the transaction. You can then serve that user ads while on Facebook to remind them of the benefits of that product so that they can complete the transaction.

Or maybe someone visited a page related to a specific niche or subject matter. You could then serve ads promoting products relevant to that niche or subject.

There have been reports of FBX providing up to 16X the ROI of typical Facebook ads while the CPC has been up to 70% lower. If your goal is to drive sales and you don’t have a vibrant Facebook community, FBX is absolutely a tool you need to consider.

Note: You can get started by advertising for free with either AdRoll (go here) or PerfectAudience (go here). That $60 credit covers advertising and all fees involved!

Also Read:

2. Custom Audiences

This is a tool that was rolled out to small businesses in September of 2012 and opened the floodgates to powerful Facebook advertising.

The concept: Target members of your email, phone number or Facebook UID list with Facebook ads.

Once again, it’s not required that you have a Facebook Page to benefit from this powerful tool. Simply upload your email list, for example, into Power Editor to target people already connected to you. If your list is well segmented, this opens up numerous opportunities for ad targeting.

Let’s say, for example, that you have a list of customers who purchased Widget 1.0 from you. When Widget 2.0 is released, you could run a Facebook ad campaign targeted at those who purchased Widget 1.0 that encourages them to upgrade.

That’s certainly a powerful way to use Custom Audiences, but you could also use this tool more generally. Frankly, the value of the subscription or purchase tends to be higher than the value of a Page like.

So you could target your entire list with ads that are relevant to the targets. And since they are already familiar to them, they are much more likely to click the ads.

Also Read: Facebook Custom Audiences: Target Facebook Ads by Email List

3. Lookalike Audiences

Custom Audiences are awesome. But let’s say that you’re a small business with a customer list that is less than 10,000 people deep. Considering only half of those email addresses are likely to be matched up to Facebook users, your target ad audience will be exhausted quickly.

That’s where Lookalike Audiences come into play. Facebook evaluates the users on your Custom Audience list and generates Lookalike Audiences that represent the users that are either in the top 1% or 5% of similarity.

This way, you can target users in ads similar to your current customers while not having a huge customer list. You can add in other Facebook targeting to make Lookalike Audiences even more refined.

And of course, there is no requirement to have a Facebook Page to benefit from this tool. Lookalike Audiences allow you to target users similar to your customers and drive them to your website.

Also Read: Facebook Lookalike Audiences: Target Users Similar to Your Customers

4. Domain Sponsored Stories

This is one of my favorite and least utilized Facebook advertising tools. Domain Sponsored Stories promote the engagement of Facebook users with your domain, rather than a Facebook Page. For that reason, there is no connection to any Facebook Page.

Let’s say that your friend Bob shared a link to JonLoomer.com. Facebook could then turn that share into an ad automatically, making sure that more of his friends saw that post.

This, of course, is increasingly powerful as the audience of the person sharing a link goes up. You can benefit significantly if an ad is generated out of a person with 500,000 followers shares a link to your website as opposed to someone with 100 friends.

Also Read:

Your Turn

Sure, I still recommend having and benefiting from a Facebook Page. But there are certainly ways that brands can profit on Facebook without having a Page at all.

Is there anything I’m missing? Let me know in the comments below!

4 Ways to Profit on Facebook Without a Facebook Page is a post from: JonLoomer.com

On this episode of the Social Media Pubcast, sponsored by TabSite, we talked about the following topics:

• FBX and measuring ROI
• News Feed ads and the balance between success and not ticking off users
• Big time results with mobile install ads
• Funding his awesome project, Dawn Patrol Truck

Here are a few links that were mentioned on this episode:

• FBX: Free trial for PerfectAudience
• FBX: Free trial for AdRoll
• The Problem with News Feed Ads: This Guy
• Help fund Dawn Patrol Truck on IndieGoGo

If you need more reason to fund Blake’s project, here’s a little video…

Blake also wanted to offer up this great resource for avoiding the 20% text rule on images within Facebook ads. Click this link for a PSD that he created.

Make sure you follow Blake’s work in the following places:

This week’s episode is sponsored by TabSite!

• DawnPatrolTruck.com
• BlakeJamieson.com
• @blakejamieson on Twitter

Also an exciting offer: Get 33% off of the annual or monthly plans of TabSite for a single Facebook Page by going to TabSite.com/podcast and using the promo code podcast. TabSite is a great tool for contest and deal apps. Check them out!

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

Crushing Facebook Marketing ROI with Blake Jamieson [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

This week’s question comes from Asher Robinson:

Where would you suggest someone start who has a good understanding of facebook but hasn’t paid for ads before (where would they start with the paying for ads part)

Some may send you straight to advertising to get more Likes. Or running a Promoted Post. But I recommend you first take a step back…

1. Establish Your Page and Business Goals
2. What are your Assets? (Email list, Facebook Page, blog/website, other social, designer, programmer, budget)
3. Establish the Goals of your Advertising (increase Likes, increase engagement, increase sales)
4. Start Basic – Self Serve Ad Tool
5. Move to more advanced (Power Editor, Custom Audiences, Lookalike Audiences, Partner Categories, Domain Sponsored Stories, Conversion Tracking, FBX)

Take a look! Make sure you check out the outtakes, and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Where to Start with Facebook Ads? [VLOG #19] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Here are the most common questions we’ve been asked and how to respond. If you have one in the list, just holler in the comments and I’ll respond.

57% of all social media advertising dollars are invested with Facebook, which is starting to approximate Google’s stranglehold on search. But how to justify the budget and effectiveness? How do you make paid, owned, and earned media work together to make you look good?

Kaila Colbin of MediaPost notes that Facebook’s marketing team recommends a “trilogy” of “targeting the right folks, making really smart ads, and measuring everything.”

So you’ll see in our approach how we keep bringing the conversation back to a business goal, then back it up with data. Data wins arguments.

1. What’s the Value of a Like?

That means you have to match on email address, tie back to a coupon code, or tie back to your point of sale (via a partner like DataLogix, if you’re a major retailer).

Facebook is the social PO Box — you pay postage to deliver your mail. So the fact that they see your messages and interact is nice (CTR and % reach are a proxy for relevancy), but you must tie that email to a lead or transaction.

Like it or not, if you’re going to measure ROI in Facebook, you’re going to use Facebook to collect emails (in a custom tab) and pump your emails back into Facebook (via custom audience targeting).

For CEO vanity metrics, enough has been said about this. PTAT is only slightly better, but still not as strong as site visits and conversions.

2. But doesn’t having a large number of likes still matter?

You can buy hundreds of fake fans and thousands of twitter followers for $5 on various sites. Others claim that this impacts EdgeRank (or “the algorithm”, as Facebook has been chiding us to use). I don’t think so, since EdgeRank is a concept to calculate the strength of an “edge” (a connection) between any two objects. So it could be Jon Loomer and myself with the content we are sharing forming new edges.

It doesn’t aggregate up to the page level. However, a highly engaging page will be generating a lot of edges, or connections between objects.

If you’re selling sugar water, go for fans since it’s probably more effective targeting than your mass-blast TV budgets. Nielsen OCR (Online Campaign Ratings) actually measures the efficiency of TV and digital campaigns. Of course, 15-20% of what TV reaches will actually fall within the intended demographic, while it’s often north of 80% for digital.

And if the fans are real, there is value in being able to do friend-of-fan targeting (Jon Loomer likes this), even though Facebook is taking away the friend-of-fan reach metric from insights soon.

3. What are your tips for getting more likes, especially if I have no money? Will “black market” fan buying hurt me?

I suppose Facebook could shut you down for aggressive fake fans. We’ve seen a few guys disabled, but it was due to other stuff in conjunction to fake fans, like promoting Russian brides.

What will most likely happen is that you’ll see your fan base dwindle over time, as Facebook’s algorithm prunes these guys out. It’s especially brutal on twitter, but that’s another story.
Most consultants like to talk about creating great content, when to post, why pictures are important, etc… to build the fan base. But rarely is that going to work. And you might not have the time and energy to wait that long.

Bottom line is if you want to grow your audience, you must send traffic to your Facebook page.  The easiest method is to advertise, for the same reasons that trying to organically rank on “car insurance” on Google for a brand new site is a challenge.

Just buy your way in, since the “free” traffic is not free — your time is worth something.

But if you just don’t have ad dollars (maybe you’re in a big company and the budget has dried up for the quarter), you can still drive traffic by mentioning the Facebook page in your email marketing, dropping a social plugin on your site (not the static “like us on Facebook” button that everyone has), and getting other friends to mention you.

If you can steal out of the paid search budget, run Google ads to your Facebook page. Users see the facebook.com display url and assume it’s high trust. Most users don’t even know that the stuff on the right in search results is a list of ads, anyway.

If you do have some budget, you’ll get the lowest cost per fan via these techniques:

• targeting fans of competitors with page like stories in the mobile newsfeed placement. Expect your CPC to be half in the newsfeed in general, with mobile being even better.
• page post ads targeted to friends of fans who still are within your target audience, with action specs set to page like (not the default of just getting more engagement).
• a traditional RHS (right hand side) ad that has a funny image, headline and body. “Click LIKE if you love bacon” worked well for us on Carl’s Jr, but I’d have to say the fan quality was low. An in-line action (when they click like or take action inside the ad unit itself, has lower cost at the trade-off of lower quality.
• targeting Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. If you want more fans — real fans, but of junk quality — go after these markets. You can get fans for a couple pennies if you do it right. We see a blended CPM of about 35 cents for US traffic, but in places like Turkey or Brazil, it might be 2-3 cents. A CPM is cost per thousand impressions — bid optimized CPM in most cases.

4. How many people are listening in Facebook as opposed to Twitter?

I’ll give $100 to anyone who can answer this question. There is no such thing as an impression on twitter, except perhaps for ads. The consumption of twitter content is largely in 3rd party tools, so even twitter doesn’t know what was seen. They don’t even know who is real, despite various tools that pretend to know.

On Facebook, we have fans, PTAT, and interaction level data public on everyone. And with insights, we have a couple dozen flavors of impressions — paid, owned, earned at the page and post level, as well as broken by gross and unique.

For example, we have reach (also known as unique impressions) and total impressions on a post. The ratio between them is frequency. Yet at the page level, we have a 24 hour, 7 day, and 28 day reach.  Of course, you can’t add up the last 28 days of daily reach to get your 28 day reach — for the same reason that if you have 100 unique visitors to your site each day, you don’t have 3,000 unique visitors.

Nearly everyone gets tripped up on this if they’re pulling insights API data for the first time. The more Facebook gets into mobile, the greater the problem becomes, since people will be interacting with Facebook in shorter, more frequent intervals.

No such thing as a session, page view, or bounce rate, of course — that’s for the world of web analytics.

5. What tools are people using in Facebook?

I’d say the very best tool is the one that’s sitting between your ears. Tools don’t replace a well-considered strategy backed by solid content, an underlying email marketing program, and an ad budget to push traffic.

I happen to like posting to Facebook natively, because you can backdate and postdate your content. No penalty for organic.

The best ads tool on the market is actually Facebook’s own Power Editor, believe it or not.  It’s free, has the latest features before anyone else, and will do the job for 99% of advertisers.

I was teaching a social data mining class today at UC San Diego and one of the professors said, “An idiot with a tool is still an idiot”.  That was his way of saying that knowledge is what’s in short supply, not software. And this is coming from yours truly, a guy who’d love to sell you some software.

6. How do teams staff to support Facebook?

It’s a “one man band” if you’re a small business or consultant, then you’re having to do it all.

But in general, there should not be a “social” person, any more than you’d have one person who’s allowed to do marketing strategy. Operating with one voice on Facebook means that whoever is producing content must have a workflow to get it into Facebook and tie to the ads folks to be able to amplify it.

The PR and community management folks must be there to respond to all customer comments, while the analytics folks count the money.

But if that’s too much or you want to start small, look at Jon’s post on how to set up Custom Audiences of different combinations, including lookalike audiences for reach and similarity. That’s the easiest way to drive immediate ROI, if you have a list that is already producing for you.

7. Once you’ve built a Page for your business, how do you build conversation?

The average fan on Facebook who has interacted with a major page has only 2.1 interactions over the course of their lifetime (about a year), based on our research of nearly a trillion impressions. That means people become a fan, perhaps click like on something, and then die.

The cynics say that Facebook is squeezing them in the newsfeed, so that we have to advertise to get reach. Facebook says that businesses have to create more interesting lightweight content over time, in an increasingly competitive environment.

The truth is in the middle.  We ran a test with a TV network where we uploaded the email list of their fan club and ran page post ads.  40% CTR– not a typo. The average CTR on Facebook is about 0.040%, so we were 1000x better.

That means that if you get the newsfeed exposure, you will certainly drive more interactions. But that’s assuming your content is shareable to begin with and you’re in an interesting industry.

8. How do you know you’re succeeding as a business on Facebook?

Do things that juice the metrics the boss cares about, as opposed to trying to first convince them otherwise. Better to establish your credibility first, which earns you the right to suggest later. Of course, know that when you shift from vanity metrics to engagement to email collection, they’ll tell you that it was their idea all along.

So why didn’t you do what they initially recommended? At that point you just smile and tell them they were right.

One case study we’re going to share is with an online retailer that split their list in two: 20,000 emails of people who have bought in the control (no Facebook ads), and the other 20,000 folks who we uploaded to Facebook as a custom audience.

For a week they spent $200 on running page post ads to the test group, while the control had no ads. Then they mailed the list. The group that was “warmed up” drove almost 50% more revenue than the folks who got only the email.

Have you run simple split tests like this?

It’s not built into Facebook natively, but it’s sure easy enough to run this A/B test yourself. Ping me if you want to know how to measure lift.  You simply look at the differences between the groups in open rate, clicks, conversions, and revenue. Your lift is the incremental revenue, from which you subtract your ad spent to get your increased margin.

9. How much time do you need to devote to maintaining your Page?

If you don’t have a lot of time, commandeer an intern from somewhere or get someone from customer care to help you.  If they answer email or the phone, they can certainly answer Facebook.

10. How often do you post on Facebook? Any rule of thumb?

I’d ask you how often to do post on your website?  How much interesting content do you produce or can you curate (a nice word for grabbing other people’s stuff and commenting on it)?

In general, at least once a day is good, but if you’re in entertainment, CPG, or a fun area, you can do 4-5 times a day. The news guys can do 30-40 times a day without much negative feedback. Look at Being Liberal and I F*cking Love Science. Both have more active users than Coke or any brand you can name.  NO ads, just a single person on each page that is curating content.

11. What’s the best day and time to post on Facebook?

At 2:42 pm on a Wednesday, making sure the post is between 120 and 130 characters and has an image containing kittens, bacon, and pretty ladies.

Ridiculous, of course. Look at your web analytics to see when YOUR customer base is online.

12. Facebook Ads – do they really work? 

Really, Partner Category targeting is fantastic, especially when you use it in conjunction with the existing precise demo, and connection targeting you have in place. Remember, this is mostly point of sale transaction data, so the fact they own an Audi is a far stronger signal than them being a fan of Audi.

60% of the fans of Ferrari are boys 13-18, so know when to cross different target types. Too bad we can’t combine custom audience and partner targeting yet.

But tricks like workplace targeting still work like a charm after four years still. Target people who work at Facebook, for example, and they’ll see what you’re up to. We’ve talked at length about how you can target the media to write about you and share your latest research.

But rather than this grandiose plan, just start with a couple quick things. You can get decent results with just a couple hours of set up.

Let me know below if you have questions to add to this.

About Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is a Facebook ads and analytics geek, founder of BlitzMetrics, and connoisseur of chicken wings across the globe. Formerly of Yahoo!, he has been featured in CNN, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, NPR, and other media. Catch him on Facebook, LinkedIn, or his blog.

How to Tackle any Facebook Marketing Question with Ease is a post from: JonLoomer.com

You should now how what FBX is, but here’s a brief overview…

FBX is Facebook’s retargeted advertising that makes it easy for advertisers to increase efficiency and ROI. A cookie is placed on owned websites so that visitors will be served a custom ad once those users visit Facebook.

It’s an awesomely powerful tool. Make sure that you read more about it here.

Until recently, FBX was only available to the biggest of brands with the biggest of budgets.

But now there are two services that provide the small-to-medium sized business access to FBX. Earlier I profiled CustomAudience (go here for a free trial). Now let’s take a look at AdRoll.

AdRoll

Go here to get started with AdRoll.

Since launching on FBX, AdRoll has grown to become the most widely adopted FBX provider with over 2,000 clients running campaigns. AdRoll reports that some of their advertisers have seen a 16X ROI on the platform with up to a 70% lower CPC when compared to standard web retargeting campaigns.

Once you start your trial, here’s how you create your FBX campaign…

1. Add Smart Pixel.

On PerfectAudience, it’s called a “tag.” Same thing, it’s the piece of code you’ll place between the HEAD tags of your site that help track visitors from your site to Facebook.

2. Segment visitors.

This is how you focus on visitors to specific pages to make your advertising as targeted as possible.

For example, someone who visited a landing page for your product but didn’t complete the transaction could be served an ad promoting that product when they return to Facebook.

3. Create a campaign.

Name it, set your budget, and determine when and where it will run. Easy, right?

4. Create an ad.

Upload your creative, choose a landing page and write your copy. If you’ve created a Facebook ad before, you’ve been through these motions.

5. Monitor Results.

Another really nice interface to help you monitor what is and isn’t working.

Free Trial

AdRoll offers a $60 free trial to get started. This covers both the advertising itself and any built-in fees. Test it out and see if you get the same amazing results that others are reporting!

Video

Here’s a fun little video about AdRoll for more info.

Your Turn

Have you tried FBX, either with AdRoll or another service? What results are you seeing? Let me know in the comments below!

FBX: How to Create Retargeted Facebook Ads with AdRoll is a post from: JonLoomer.com

If they were used judiciously — to reach non-Fans in a polite way to introduce value — you’d even occasionally embrace the existence of ads in your News Feed.

But today’s Facebook marketers are giving News Feed ads a bad name. And they’re making me irritable.

If I don’t know you, do you really think it’s a good idea to invade my News Feed with a sales push supported by some too-good-to-be-true grand proclamation?

You’re making users hate News Feed ads. That makes it difficult for those who use them intelligently to actually use them.

Here’s an example of an ad that I’ve spotted in my News Feed…

I have no idea who this guy is. It’s entirely possible that he’s legit. He may just be a very nice guy. He may have an incredible rags-to-riches story.

But because he’s someone I don’t know, I have very little patience for his presence in my News Feed. I assume he’s a slimy scam artist. I don’t trust his too-good-to-be-true story. I don’t trust him.

You know what I would have trusted? If he had advertised to my News Feed looking like a normal guy. Not someone bragging about how much money he made. But sharing something valuable instead of trying to sell me something.

Instead, I see this ridiculous photo you see above. And I’ve seen it over and over and over again. It makes me hate this guy. And it makes me hate News Feed ads.

What he’s doing is the equivalent of knocking on my door or calling my phone to sell his crap.

What I’m saying is the equivalent of Get off my lawn! or Take me off your calling list *CLICK*.

If You’re Going to Sell Something, Target Fans Only

Look, I hate being the Facebook police, but this should be common sense.

You should understand the sales funnel by now. People who are your Facebook Fans are in that sales funnel. Don’t start forcing non-Fans down it prematurely.

If someone has liked your Page, you undoubtedly already share an occasional post that sells something. Such people should have little issue with these posts.

Feel free to promote such posts to your Fans only. And yes, you can still do this.

If You’re Going to Target Non-Fans, Offer Value

People are very protective and territorial when it comes to their News Feeds. If you’re going to trespass, you’d better be sure you’re there to provide value.

And “providing value” doesn’t mean selling them some get-rich-quick scheme. It means looking like a friendly face who is there to help.

If you’re going to promote in the News Feeds of non-Fans, do me a favor and avoid posting anything that includes a currency symbol or a call to action that leads to a conversion.

Think I’m going too far? Maybe you can get creative and do this without looking like scum. But it’s my rule of thumb.

How About You?

What do you think of News Feed ads? Do you target non-Fans? Let me know in the comments below!

The Problem with Facebook News Feed Ads: This Guy is a post from: JonLoomer.com

What comes to mind when someone mentions the phrase “Facebook Ads”? If you only think of increasing Likes, running Sponsored Stories or wasting money on the sidebar, you are way, way behind.

You should know about Custom Audiences, Lookalike Audiences, Partner Categories, Domain Sponsored Stories and Conversion Tracking by now. And you should be using Power Editor to get it all done.

But you’re probably not using the most powerful tool of them all: FBX, Facebook’s ad retargeting product.

What is FBX?

FBX is Facebook’s version of ad retargeting. You may have already noticed more relevant ads as you surf the Internet. Ad retargeting isn’t new. But Facebook ad retargeting is becoming increasingly common.

The process of retargeting can be summed up like this:

1. You visit a website or specific page of that website;
2. That brand can then serve ads to you related to that visit when you are elsewhere.

In the case of Facebook, this means that Facebook can serve you ads relevant to your web surfing behavior.

Here’s an example…

1. You visit the landing page for my One-on-One services;
2. That page has a cookie on it, alerting Facebook that you were there;
3. I can then have Facebook serve you an ad reminding you of that service when you visit Facebook.

How is FBX Accessed?

Unlike the tools mentioned at the top of this post, you can’t access FBX through the self-serve ad tool or even Power Editor. You must use a third party tool approved by Facebook.

There aren’t many of them. And the vast majority are enterprise solutions that require a significant monthly budget.

But there actually are solutions out there for small and medium-sized businesses as well. I am going to cover a couple and my experiences with them in the coming days (here’s how you can get started with a free trial for AdRoll). I am currently experimenting with PerfectAudience, and they offer a $60 free trial (which covers the service and cost of ads) to get started.

Getting Started with PerfectAudience

First, go here to get started with PerfectAudience.

1. Install the PerfectAudience tag.

This is the cookie that you place between the HEAD tags of your website. You can do this manually or with a WordPress or Joomla plugin.

2. Create a retargeting list.

This is how you segment who sees your ad on Facebook. You could target all visitors to your website. Or you could target users who visited specific pages of your website for a more relevant ad experience.

3. Build campaigns.

Select your ads, your segmented audience, budget and CPM bid.

4. Monitor results.

I’ve just gotten started with my campaign, but above is an example of what the dashboard looks like to help monitor your results.

FBX: More to Come

As I mentioned above, I’ve started testing out FBX. In the coming days I’ll be providing more details on yet another service (AdRoll) I am trying. Soon after, I’ll begin sharing my results.

Stay tuned!

FBX: How to Create Retargeted Facebook Ads with PerfectAudience is a post from: JonLoomer.com

• Is EdgeRank an official term?
• Affinity is built through repeated engagement
• Comments drive four times the clicks as likes
• The impact of Negative Feedback on EdgeRank
• A theory on declining Reach
• The future of “best time to post”

Make sure you follow Chad’s work in the following places:

This week’s episode is sponsored by TabSite!

• EdgeRank Checker
• PostAcumen
• @ChadWittman on Twitter

Also an exciting offer: Get 33% off of the annual or monthly plans of TabSite for a single Facebook Page by going to TabSite.com/podcast and using the promo code podcast. TabSite is a great tool for contest and deal apps. Check them out!

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

Exploring Facebook EdgeRank with Chad Wittman [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Here’s my son testing it out…

Either my son needs to get taller or we’re gonna have to lower those lights!

I had previously made it a New Years resolution to invest more in video this year. Well, here it is! I’d love to hear what you think.

This week’s question comes from Nikole Gipps:

I swear my FB offer went from min $30 to min $80 recently … did they increase or am I imagining this?

My answer to this question is similar to what I’ve been telling people about Promoted Posts.

Take a look! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Facebook Offers Rising Costs: What to Do? [VLOG #18] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I often find that businesses dive into using Facebook without having a plan in place. Their initial enthusiasm wears off and they either stop completely or start obsessing about numbers of Likes or how many people are talking about their page.

One statistic that I do think is worth obsessing about is how many leads you are getting from Facebook.

A lead could be something as simple as an email address, a customer coming in the door or something more qualified.  You could prompt a potential client or customer to provide you with more information so that you know how best to approach them and convert your lead into a sale.

Here are six ways that you can start capturing leads via Facebook…

1. Competitions

A competition of some kind is still one of the best things you can do to increase page Likes and generate leads. By using competition applications such as ShortStack you can gather extra information on potential customers.

Think about what information you need. If it’s an email address, make sure that you also get permission to contact them again. Depending on your business you will require different information; maybe you need to know where they live, what age group they fit into or something more specific.

Try to keep it simple. The more questions you ask, the fewer entries you will get. It can be a fine balance between getting to know more about your lead and putting them off completely.

It’s also important to choose a prize that will attract your target market. If you can give away your own product or service, this is ideal. If not, think carefully about what will attract them.

For example, if you are targeting women, a chocolate hamper might be the best choice. If you are targeting men, tickets to a sporting event might work well.

2. Add Calls To Action To Posts

We very often forget to sell via Facebook.

Yes, it’s true we shouldn’t drown our Facebook audience with sales posts, but you can sell if you choose the right language. Rather than creating an image full of text about your latest special offer, think about pairing it with a good image or a tip that enhances your message. Then be sure to add a phone number, email address or link depending on how to buy.

This example from a local pub, the Silken Thomas in Kildare, Ireland, is designed to appeal to those attending a nearby horse racing event.

3. Whisper Codes

If you are a retailer, you may want to encourage more people to come into your store as that’s where the lead conversion happens for you.

It’s still important to gather contact info so that you can get in touch with people directly, but you can physically cause customers to walk in the door using “whisper codes.”

A whisper code is a phrase that you share on Facebook that when repeated in store allows the customer to avail of a discount or a special offer.

Maybe you want to put together a deal, for example a free cookie with every cup of coffee or maybe a discount like the one below from Joyce’s Hardware Store.

Giving people an amusing phrase will also create a bit of a buzz in store when people repeat it.

4. Customized Tabs

You probably have a lead generation form on your website of some sort, whether it’s “Get our Newsletter,” “Contact Us” or “Apply Now.” It’s the way that you currently collect contact info for potential leads.

By adding tabs to your Facebook page you can also facilitate lead capture. Think about adding a “Contact Us,” “Book Now” or “Subscribe” tab, making it easier to capture leads without sending customers away from Facebook.

It’s easy to create a customized tab. I’m going to mention ShortStack again as I’m a massive fan, but what I like about their apps is that they work for both desktop and mobile users. There are some other great choices out there, too, including Pagemodo and Static HTML.

Here’s an example on Robert Redmond Photographer’s Facebook page. Notice he is asking which service the customer is interested in and when their Wedding date is when applicable.

One thing you have to remember with Facebook tabs is that people rarely visit them unless you link directly to them from your content or ads. You will need to work links to them into your posting schedule to ensure you capture leads.

5. Encourage Existing Customers to Become Brand Ambassadors

Your existing customers are possibly your best sales people. As with offline word of mouth (WOM) marketing, Facebook facilitates the endorsement of what you do.

Make sure your existing customers are active on your page. Ask them questions, thank them for their participation and give them good, relevant content they can share with their friends.

If you are an existing fan of Seasick Steve you are bound to want to buy his new album, but by combining his sales post with a video from the new album he is encouraging us to share with our friends.

6. Offers

I was delighted when the Facebook Offers tool was launched. It’s a great way to measure return on investment directly, but to turn it into a lead generation tool you’ll need to do a bit more.

Whether you are a bricks and mortar store or an online retailer, you should always choose the “Online Only” option when creating your Offer. This way you can collect more information about your customer and send them your own voucher.

Even if you don’t have a website you can set up a custom page on Facebook or even something as simple as a form within a Google doc to collect information. This way you will know exactly who is claiming your Offer and have the opportunity to get all of the relevant information you need to help your potential client or customer.

Here’s an offer that was snapped up pretty quickly for The Dublin Meat Company.

How About You?

Please let me know your experiences in the comments below!

About Amanda Webb
Amanda Webb from Spiderworking.com offers social media help for small business. She is also the co-founder of Blog Awards Ireland and is about to launch a new joint project WeTeachSocial.

6 Ways To Capture Leads From Facebook Pages is a post from: JonLoomer.com

But you absolutely should be looking to increase your number of relevant Facebook Fans. These are the people, if targeted appropriately, will help lead to more business.

The number one way of doing this quickly is with Facebook ads. Below are 11 powerful ways that you can increase your number of relevant Facebook Likes with ads!

[As always, it's recommended that you use Power Editor. If you don't, some of these won't be possible!]

1. Run Page Like Sponsored Stories

This is the easiest way to increase Page Likes. A Page Like Sponsored Story is simply promoting that “Friend A Likes Brand X.” Such ads target only friends of Fans and can appear within any placement (sidebar, desktop News Feed or mobile News Feed).

This is social proof! If my friend likes something, maybe I should, too?

Such an ad includes a Like link, and does not allow for comments.

2. Use Basic and Relevant Targeting

When you set up any ad on Facebook, you need to make sure you use at least the most basic of targeting.

Here are a few of the ways you can isolate potential Fans and avoid wasting money on people who won’t care about your brand:

• Geography (Country, state/province, city, zip code)
• Age
• Gender
• Interested in (All, men or women)
• Relationships (All, single, engaged, in a relationship, married or not specified)
• Languages
• Education (Anyone, college grad, in college, in high school)
• Workplaces

If your brand only applies to people in the US, there’s no reason to waste money outside of the country. Same goes for language, age, gender and the other targeting basics.

3. Use Precise Interest or Broad Category Targeting

You can also pin down your basic targeting a bit more by entering in some relevant keywords, phrases and brands within Precise Interests.

Think about your ideal customer and the things that interest them!

If you don’t want to enter every relevant phrase, you may instead choose to enter a couple of Broad Categories…

Choose either Precise Interests or Broad Categories — not both! I prefer Precise Interests.

4. Run Marketplace Ads

This ad unit is what appears within the sidebar. Unlike a Sponsored Story, you can customize the title, copy and imagery.

Such an ad takes more thought, but it also opens the door for split testing and optimization. Try many different variations of creative and targeting to find what works best!

5. Target Friends of Fans

Sponsored Stories will only appear to friends of Fans, but other ads will give you this option. Make sure you run options targeting this important group!

6. Run Facebook Sponsored Search Ads

Particularly if your audience is in the early growth stage, you should be using Facebook Sponsored Search Results.

You can target more popular (and relevant) Facebook Pages that users are likely to be searching. Once again, think about the types of Pages your ideal customer likes.

It looks like I’m being targeted in such an ad!

7. Target Your Email List

Let’s say you already have an established email list, but you’re just now focusing on growing your Facebook Page. You can leverage that list with Custom Audiences!

Target members on your list who are not currently Fans with a marketplace or search ad to remind them to Like your Page. Since they’ve already proven to like your content, conversion rate will be high if you have a quality list!

8. Target Lookalike Audiences

If your email list is high quality but small, you can expand it through Lookalike Audiences. This can help you target potential Fans who are similar to people on your email list.

Within Power Editor, click your list and then “Create Similar Audience.” From there, Facebook will find users who are either within the top 1% or 5% of similarity compared to your list.

9. Target via Partner Categories

Within the US, marketers have the powerful ability to target users based on purchase behaviors (online and offline) away from Facebook through the use of Partner Categories.

Targeting by interests is dependent on users providing accurate and updated information within their profiles. But Partner Categories allow you to target by actual purchase history and behaviors.

This is a powerful way to target your ideal customer!

10. Give to Get

If you run a marketplace ad, consider giving something away in exchange for a Page like. Of course, make sure that whatever it is you give away is highly relevant to your product or service. Use this as the hook within your ad copy.

Examples could include an eBook, access to a program or a discount to your product or service. Ultimately, you want people interested in what you provide to like your Page. Avoid giving away iPads!

11. Run and Promote Contests

A good way to quickly increase Likes is through running a contest. Once again, make sure that the prize is relevant!

I use ShortStack to create my contests.

While you don’t necessarily need to use ads to push a contest, I strongly advise that you do. The exception would be if your main goal of a contest is to reward current Fans. But if you’re reading this post, you’re looking to attract new ones. In that case, use ads!

Your Turn

What would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!

11 Powerful Ways to Increase Relevant Facebook Likes with Ads is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Advertisers now have the ability to promote unpublished (otherwise known as “dark”) posts within the News Feeds of Fans.

An unpublished post is a status update, link share, video or photo that was never meant to be shared as an organic post. Staying true to its name, it’s never published but is only surfaced as an ad.

This functionality was previously made available to the ads API in July of 2012, but until recently the only placement option was the sidebar.

Why Create Unpublished Posts?

The purpose of today’s article is to tell you how to do this, but it’s necessary to provide a short explanation for why you might want to. A deeper explanation will need to come on another day.

The main reason you should consider creating unpublished posts is for split testing purposes.

You can otherwise utilize post targeting via the following methods:

• Gender
• Relationship Status
• Educational Status
• Interested In
• Age
• Location
• Language

This is nice, but you can’t target by interests, Custom Audiences, Partner Categories and other ways that you target with ads. And there’s also the issue with every targeted post appearing on your Timeline unless you hide the extras.

One of the ways I’ll find it helpful is when I create a post that is rejected by Facebook as an ad.

We’ve all been there. You share a link to your new product. You promote it. But the image associated with that link has more than 20% text in it, so Facebook gives you a big roadblock.

Instead of creating a whole new post, you can simply create an unpublished post and promote it to the Fans who matter most to you.

Okay, so here’s how you do it…

1. Use Power Editor

This should be Step 1 for all Facebook advertising you do. Please use Power Editor. If you don’t know how to use it, check out this tutorial.

2. Create a Campaign

Every site I’ve seen explain unpublished posts does a horrible job of explaining how to do it. As a result, every necessary step is here for you.

Since you will need to create a new ad from an established campaign, let’s do that first.

Click “Campaigns” at the top and then “Create Campaign.”

Then name your campaign, set a daily or lifetime budget and determine a start and end date.

3. Go to Manage Pages

If you’ve never created a post from within Power Editor, this step is one that will likely stump you. So click dropdown at the top left and select “Manage Pages”…

4. Create Your Unpublished Post

Select the name of your Page on the left hand side and then click the “Create Post” button at the top…

Select whether you are creating a Status, Link, Photo or Video and then compose your post. You can also target by language or location, but that really won’t be necessary.

When you’re done, click “Submit.” Note that this does not publish your post, it merely saves your composed post.

5. Promote Your Unpublished Post

You will know that your post is unpublished (or “dark”) because there will be a moon icon next to it…

Select this post and click the “Promote” button…

You’ll now need to select the campaign you created earlier to run your ad in…

Now go through and select the options you prefer within Creative & Placements, Audience and Advanced Options.

Then click the “Upload” button at the top right of the page, and your promoted unpublished post will be submitted for review!

6. Viewing Dark Posts and Notifications

Of course, once you create a dark or unpublished post, it won’t appear on your Timeline. So how do you see it, and what about when users comment on or like it?

From Power Editor, find that post again and click “View Post.”

This will allow you to view that post within Facebook…

You will also receive notifications as you normally would whenever users comment on or like your post.

Also, if your unpublished post is a photo or video, it will appear within your photo album. It just won’t appear on your Timeline.

Try It!

Try your own dark post! What are some of the reasons that you’ll be using this feature? Let me know in the comments below!

Facebook Ads Tip: How to Create a Dark or Unpublished Facebook Post is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Andrea Vahl, AKA Grandma Mary, stopped by the virtual pub. I sat with a water while Andrea claimed to be sipping some Jim Beam.

We chatted about the following hot topics:

This week’s episode is sponsored by TabSite!

• The birth of Grandma Mary
• The value of social media marketing conferences
• Power Editor and using it to learn about your subscribers
• The death of the Notifications Box in the Admin Panel
• The change to Promoted Posts, removing “Fans Only” option
• Facebook contests, and the tools Andrea uses (including TabSite!)

Here are some links and articles that were discussed:

• 4 Reasons Social Media Marketing World was the Best Conference Ever
• How to Analyze Your Email Newsletter List with Facebook
• Facebook Promoted Posts Fans Only Option Removed [Do This]
• Power Editor: An Alternative to Facebook Promoted Posts
• How to Engage Your Audience and Grow Your Email List with Facebook Contests
• Alternatives to Wildfire and NorthSocial for Facebook Page Applications

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

You can find Andrea at AndreaVahl.com and on Facebook at FB.com/GrandmaMaryShow. Follow her now!

Facebook Changes and the Power of Contests with Andrea Vahl [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com